HMP Bedford

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

We assessed 1 quality statement for this key question. We found staff had not always assessed the physical and mental health of patients. Care plans were not always personalised or contain an adequate amount of information to inform staff of the level of care required. Planned interventions were not always clear and patients did not always receive care and treatment required.

We saw some evidence that care planning training resulted in improvement of documentation. However, there was more work to be done relating to care plans, risk assessments, and timely mental health assessments. Inpatient unit care plans and risk assessments were poor, causing delays to care and treatment, as well as referrals to other services.

Find out what we look at when we assess this area in our information about our new Single assessment framework.

Mental Health:
At the last assessment we found staff did not consistently complete patient care plans with sufficient information to enable both staff and patients to understand what care and treatment they could expect.

During this assessment we found most staff within the mental health team had very recently received training on writing care plans. We found that whilst there had been some improvement, there was more work to be done to ensure all care plans and risk assessments were of a good standard, contained adequate information to provide safe care, and completed on time. For example, the care plan for one patient outlined the patient engages in impulsive behaviour but it was not clear what this was or what strategies would be used to minimise the risk of these behaviours.

Inpatient unit:
We found care plans and risk assessments for patients on the inpatient unit did not always contain the information we would expect to see, which meant we could not be assured that their needs had been fully assessed. We found there were delays in these patients receiving care and treatment including health and social care, and referrals for other services were also not processed on a timely basis. For example, the care plan for one patient was not completed until several days after their admission to the unit. The care plan lacked detail: it commented on their nutritional status, but had not included details of how the patient would be supported. It was also recorded in the care plan that the patient had ‘other problems’ without providing any detail as to what they were. Another patient had not had their wound tended to for 11 days. This meant that patients’ physical health may deteriorate, this may also impact on their psychological well-being.

The judgement for Delivering evidence-based care and treatment is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

The judgement for How staff, teams and services work together is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

The judgement for Supporting people to live healthier lives is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

The judgement for Monitoring and improving outcomes is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

The judgement for Consent to care and treatment is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.